in 1911.[1] This came
so swiftly upon the conquest of the North Pole, that it caught the
world unprepared; it was an unexpected triumph. Yet it marks the
closing of an era. Earth's surface has no more secrets concealed from
man. For half a century past, the only remaining spaces of complete
mystery, of utter blankness on our maps, were the two Poles. And now
both have been attained. The gaze of man's insatiable wonderment must
hereafter be turned upon the distant stars.

[Footnote 1: See _Discovery of the South Pole_, page 218.]

But man does not merely explore his environment; he alters it. Most
widespread and important of our recent remodelings of our surroundings
has been the universal adoption of the automobile. This machine has so
increased in popularity and in practical utility that we may well call
ours the "Automobile Age." The change is not merely that one form of
vehicle is superseding another on our roads and in our streets. We face
an impressive theme for meditation in the fact that up to the present
generation man was still, as regarded his individual personal transit,
in the same position as the Romans of two thousand years ago, dependent
upon the horse as his swiftest mode of progress. With the automobile we
have suddenly doubled, quadrupled the size of our "neighborhood," the
space which a man may cover alone at will for a ramble or a call. As
for speed, we seem to have succumbed to an actual mania for
ever-increasing motion. The automobile is at present the champion
speed-maker, the fastest means of propelling himself man has yet
invented. But the aeroplane and the hydroplane are not far behind, and
even the electric locomotive has a thrill of promise for the speed
maniac.[2]

[Footnote 2: See _Man's Fastest Mile_, page 73.]

In thus developing his mastery over Nature man sometimes forgets his
danger, oversteps the narrow margin of safety he has left between
himself and the baffled forces of his ancient tyrants, Fire and Water,
Earth and Air. Then indeed, in his moments of weakness, the primordial
forces turn upon him and he becomes subject to tragic and terrific
punishment. Of such character was the most prominent disaster of these
years, the sinking of the ocean steamer _Titanic_. The best talent of
England and America had united to produce this monster ship, which was
hailed as the last, the biggest, the most perfect thing man could do in
shipbuilding. It was pronounced "unsinkable." Its captain